11.28.11

As you’re probably all too aware, Buffalo WR Stevie Johnson’s warm-up act for a succession of crucial dropped passes in yesterday’s 28-24 loss to the J-E-R-K-S was a TD catch celebration that included miming shooting himself in the leg, ala Gang Green’s convicted felon, Plaxico Burress. Johnson’s self-expression provided NBC’s Bob Costas with an anti-showboating platform for his weekly “Football Night In America” commentary, remarks Black Sports Online’s Robert Litall took considerable exception to, in specific, Costas sneering, “hey, knuckleheads, is it too much to ask that you confine your buffoonery to situations that don’t directly damage your team?”

Using a term like buffoon while singling out a majority of African-American players is nothing but code for “hood, Ghetto, hip hop & Afrocentric” type behavior and that is exactly how the majority of the white audience will take it.

When in reality from Aaron Rodgers’ “Championship Belt” dance to Jared Allen “Hog Tie” dance, celebrations have no race, but I am sure the term “buffoon” wouldn’t have been used if was Jordy Nelson who mocked Plaxico.

Stevie Johnson and Plaxico Burress handle the situation like men, the only Buffoon in this situation is Costas who by perpetuating stereotypes with boldface lies and ignorance, proved he isn’t as smart as he think he is.

I generally don’t wake up Monday morning thinking of ways to defend Bob Costas, nor do I share the Sandusky-interrogator’s wholesale distaste for…well, what did we used to call, fun? However, I think it is a slight stretch to find racial overtones in his use of “buffoon”. Where Aaron Rodgers or Jared Allen guilty of saddling their respective teams with penalties due to their chosen brand of celebration, Costas would be completely justified in calling them idiots. Indeed, in Johnson’s case, Costas has specifically mocked someone besides a white athlete. He ought to feel completely free to do so, just so long as as the public misdeeds of dopes like Rex Ryan, Brett Favre and Brian Cushing are under similar scrutiny.